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IDT (Integrated Device Technology), introduced the industry's first family of 1.8-volt dual-port devices specifically developed for high-end, power-sensitive wireless applications. The device family targets those wireless platforms where multiple low-voltage processors are used to address the ever-increasing processor requirements for high-end wireless handset applications. The new dual-port family not only underscores the company's leadership in multi-port technology, but also better positions the company to address emerging high-end applications in cellular communications where integrated voice-, multimedia- and data-processing are becoming the paradigm.

"Introducing the industry's first 1.8-volt dual-port devices further extends the leadership position in the multi-port market that IDT has held for nearly twenty years," said Ronald Jew, director of product management for the IDT multi-port products. "These new dual-port products demonstrate our stated goal to develop highly relevant, industry-leading products that meet the specific needs of our customers, and emphasize our commitment to the wireless design community. Indeed, reducing board space and power consumption while delivering high-performance wireless handheld devices has become a major challenge for designers. Our new dual-port devices directly address this challenge, and a number of leading-edge customers have already expressed interest in these products."

The new 1.8-volt dual-port family delivers extremely low power consumption for a wide range of wireless handheld applications where, for example, a baseband processor and an applications processor both might be required to exchange high-speed data with one another while handling independent processing requirements in parallel. Evolving 2.5G and 3G cellular applications are good examples of such environments. With up to a 95 percent reduction in operating and standby current, the new family offers a dramatic improvement in power consumption when compared to alternative dual-ports in the market. The devices are available in small package sizes, through the use of the company's aggressive packaging technology, increasing their appeal for products such as wireless handsets and PDAs where space constraints are a major concern.

"Mobile phone vendors are increasingly adding applications processors to converged devices and high-end multimedia handsets to enable high-level operating systems as well as advanced audio, graphics and video functionality," said Allen Leibovitch, manager of wireless semiconductor research for IDC. "Our current estimates show that the number of handsets that include discrete applications processors is on the rise. To date, there is no standardized high-speed link between the discrete applications processor and the baseband. Handset vendors will welcome a low-power device that can enable that high-speed link to truly utilize the wireless data capabilities that carriers now provide."

The new dual-port family includes two specialized devices, the 70P248 and 70P258, which support 3.3/3.0/2.5-volt I/O voltages on one port with the core and opposite port I/Os operating at 1.8 volts. This functionality enables designers to use a single dual-port to interface between processors and I/Os of different voltages without using additional voltage translators. The devices also offer other features not found in traditional dual-port devices. For example, the 70P248 and 70P258 integrate innovative Input Read and Output Drive registers that allow the user to monitor and drive external binary input and output devices, such as DIP switches and LEDs, using only the standard memory interface of the dual-port. This functionality extends the capabilities of the processors in the application and gives the user the ability to use valuable GPIO (general purpose I/O) pins for other purposes.

The 1.8-volt dual-port devices offer high-speed access times of up to 55 ns and provide two independent ports with separate control, address and I/O pins that permit independent, asynchronous access for reads or writes to any location in memory. Aggressively engineered to reduce the operating current and standby current, the new IDT dual-port devices are fabricated using a high-performance IDT CMOS technology and typically operate on only 27 mW of power. In addition, an automatic power-down feature permits the on-chip circuitry of each port to enter a very low standby power mode of typically only 3.6 ?W. The devices are packaged in a 100-ball, 0.5 mm-pitch ball grid array, which is only 1 mm thick, making them ideal for wireless handset and other portable applications.
Pricing and Availability

Pricing for the 1.8-volt dual-port devices ranges from $2.50 to $3.50 in million-unit quantities. The devices are sampling now, with production quantities available in Q2CY04. IBIS and hardware simulation models are also available for the new devices. More information about these and other IDT multi-port products can be found on the IDT Web site at http://www.idt.com/products/pages/Multi-Ports.html. High-resolution, downloadable photos of the 1.8-volt dual-port products are located at
http://www10.idt.com:81/pressroom/imagebank/products.cfm.